Hello Travelers, and welcome to the Pre-Patch Blog Post for Frost Claw! Frost Claw is being added as a new skill for the base Mage class. This is in addition to the 5 Runemaster skills, meaning there will be a total of 6 new skills being introduced in Patch 0.9.2 - Runes of Power! As we were developing Runemaster for the Mage, and began receiving early feedback, one of the most common responses was was the lack of a spammable cold skill, particularly for use in generating Heo runes early. When we reviewed this feedback, we agreed that there needed to be an earlier access for the Runemaster to generate runes, as well as correcting the lack of a fast usage cold spell alongside Fireball and Lightning Blast. Because of this, we decided to address the gap within the Mage class in tandem with the release of Runemaster. Frost Claw helps to provide support for more elemental build options, supports all Mage Masteries, and is just plain fun.

Frost Claw

Unlocked at level 12 for all Mages, Frost Claw fires three piercing cold projectiles in an arc, dealing damage to any enemies they pass through, and converging on the targeted location to create a burst of area damage on impact. With Fireballs focus on damaging single enemies, and Lightning Blasts ability to target multiple enemies, this left a space in between for an area damage based ability. As such, not only does Frost Claw take up the missing element, it also fits the middle ground between playstyles, adding a greater element of accuracy rewarding picking the right spot to deal damage to a number of enemies. With its versatile design and ability to be quickly cast at high speeds with low cost, Frost Claw offers opportunities to be used by any of the three masteries. It can be specialized into Fire or Lightning in addition to the base cold, it can gain Melee Damage as Spell Damage, and can even be triggered automatically by melee attacks allowing even further spell synergy with the Spellblade. Depending on how Frost Claw is specialized, it can also be set up as a zero cost skill, making it useful as a generator for other abilities.
Lets take a look at a couple of the Transformative Nodes you will find on the Frost Claw tree!

On Through the Snow

With On Through the Snow, you will enable Frost Claw to recast from the target location a second time behind the targeted location. This recast can hit the same enemies hit by the first cast, producing both increased targeted damage, as well as expanding the total area of effect of the ability as the new projectiles can also hit any enemies along their path.

Volley of Glass

Looking for greater single target damage out of Frost Claw? Volley of glass removes the Area of Effect blast damage at the target location, but staggers each of the projectiles, allowing a single enemy to be hit by each one. This also lends Frost Claw to some very exciting ailment builds, so options are very open here.

New Items and Visual Updates

Frost Claw is a perfect example of the importance and value of listening to feedback from the community. We want to provide a big thank you to everyone who helped us arrive at introducing Frost Claw to fill a much needed vacuum in the Mage Class, and provide an additional skill for everyone to enjoy in Patch 0.9.2 - Runes of Power! With a total of six new abilities, with five in a completely new mastery coming to Mage in just six more days, it should be a great patch for theory-crafting builds! Join us again tomorrow well be taking a look at some of the new Unique Items, continuing visual improvements, and quality of life updates coming to Last Epoch next week!